If you’ve ever wondered how Western Canada, and more particularly the Prairies, stacks up or their share of the national economy, a new set of data points from StatsCanada offer an interesting insight into our role or weight on the national level.
In Saskatchewan, we often talk about the 3F’s – Food, Fuel and Fertilizer – so if we look at those, we get to see the role these big Western Canadian industries play nationally.
Now, the StatsCan numbers lump the Prairies together so we are part of the Alberta-Sask-Manitoba assessment.
So, first, Energy or Fuel. The Prairies account for about two-thirds of all the national assets in this category. So a federal government attacking this region is basically undermining the bulk of this critical sector. We also generate half the jobs and 80 per cent of the energy sector’s income.
On the Food or agriculture sector, we represent almost half the national asset base and about one-third of jobs. But we are highly productive, even though we generate less than half the industry’s revenue, we account for 70 per cent of the food production segment’s income.
